Netflix have made it clear that they want to play Hollywood at their own game when it comes to action-packed blockbusters, with the streaming giant releasing Michael Bay’s $150 million 6 Underground last year and recently closing a huge deal with the Russo brothers that will see the Avengers: Endgame directors tackle $200 million espionage thriller The Gray Man with Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling in the lead roles.
However, their biggest hit in the action genre cost less than half as much as both of the aforementioned projects, with Chris Hemsworth’s $65 million Extraction becoming Netflix’s most-watched original movie ever after racking up almost 100 million views in just four weeks. Despite the relatively low costs yielding massive success, the company are still going all-in with their next action epic, and they’ve roped in the biggest, most popular and highest-paid star in the world to help them do it.
Red Notice has Dwayne Johnson re-teaming with his Central Intelligence and Skyscraper director Rawson Marshall Thurber for a globe-trotting heist thriller that sees the 48 year-old cast as an Interpol agent sent to track down the world’s most notorious art thief played by Gal Gadot, while Ryan Reynolds is also on board as the greatest conman on the planet.
That combination of star power and the sort of high-concept pitch we don’t really see anymore is enough to generate plenty of excitement, especially with Johnson and Reynolds making it clear they’re having a great time putting it together. Unfortunately, however, Red Notice was shut down in March as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, although shooting is expected to resume as early as next month.
There’s still no official release date locked in yet, but Netflix are confident Red Notice will be finished and ready to go well before the end of 2021, and there’s even been rumors that Tom Cruise could be in line for a cameo appearance. At this point, it would be a huge surprise if the movie didn’t end up knocking Extraction off the top spot to become Netflix‘s most successful in-house original ever, but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out.